Live streaming e-commerce has achieved a trillion yuan GMV in two years, but now the hourly wage has dropped to 20 yuan.

@Xinshang Original Author: Gu Shi | Editor: Jiu Li

Four years ago, entrepreneurs could rely on live streaming e-commerce to repay 600 million yuan of debt; three years ago, comedians transformed into e-commerce broadcasters and became Douyin's top streamer; two years ago, teachers from education and training institutions shifted to selling products on Douyin, becoming a national darling. Behind the legendary life reversal achieved by live streaming e-commerce is the soaring GMV of Douyin e-commerce. In 2020, the GMV of Douyin e-commerce exceeded 500 billion yuan, tripling; in 2021, media revealed that under a wide definition, the GMV of Douyin e-commerce had approached a trillion yuan, while Taobao Live's GMV had just exceeded 500 billion yuan.

Put simply, in the live streaming e-commerce race, Douyin caught up with Taobao Live, which had been developing for four years, in just one year, and then doubled and surpassed it in another year. However, to date, if we count from the time when Luo Yonghao entered the Douyin live streaming e-commerce scene in 2020, igniting the Douyin live streaming e-commerce boom, the four-year-old Douyin e-commerce is also facing a slowdown in growth. The decline in GMV of top live streaming broadcasters, the waning interest in super-head broadcasters, and the hourly wage of bottom-tier broadcasters dropping to 20 yuan, as the closest people to the frontline, have also become the first to sense the warmth of the ecosystem.

01 The decline of live streaming e-commerce is evident

Pinduoduo, which took four years to achieve a trillion yuan GMV, is still in its prime, while Douyin, which achieved a trillion yuan GMV in just two years, has already shown signs of decline. Taking Douyin's important beauty and cosmetics business segment as an example, according to Information Daily, Feigua data shows that "Mr. and Mrs. Guangdong" had a turnover of 450 million yuan in the same period last year, but only 61.14 million this year, a year-on-year decline of 86.4%. "Pan Yurun" had 29.529 million yuan in the same period last year, but only 6.748 million this year, a decline of 77%. "Qi'er" had 111 million yuan in the same period last year, but only 12.923 million this year, a decline of 88.46%. The decline in top broadcasters' sales and the hiding of super-head broadcasters during 618 have also been observed.

During this year's 618 promotion, Luo Yonghao, who had previously owed 600 million yuan of debt, has also stepped out of the live streaming room after more than two years of broadcasting and repaying the debt. Until the evening of May 24, Luo Yonghao only briefly appeared in the "Make Friends" Douyin live streaming room. Dong Yuhui, a national darling of traffic, also seems to be distancing himself from the promotion. The longest recent live broadcast in Shenzhen lasted only four hours, but in the 20 minutes after it went live, nearly 10,000 orders were received, with sales exceeding 120 million yuan. However, throughout the 618 period, according to publicly available market statistics, Dong Yuhui only participated in less than 10 live broadcasts.

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